Susan Sims:  Hey everybody! This is Susan Sims.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  And I am Nicholas Sveslosky.  We are your hosts for Travel Tails on Pet Life Radio.  As editor and publisher of Fido Friendly Magazine, we know travel.

Susan Sims:  That’s right and we can’t wait to share our years of dog travel experience during our podcast each week.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  On today’s show, we will be talking about a new bed for Bowzer and one that is absolutely perfect for travel. 

Susan Sims:  Yeah, Nicholas, you know our household.  We have a few beds around the house.  It’s kind of like we put beds in the office, we put beds in the media room, we put beds in the kennel.  These are for our directors of barketing, Zoe and Mattie. We’re always looking for one--just one--that will make the transition from home to our kennel on wheels, one that’s easy to transport and holds its shape.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  That’s actually a good point but before we go on to that I want to draw attention to the reason why there are so many beds in your household.  And that’s because, I think it’s, Zoe, that abuses the beds!

Susan Sims:  You know that’s probably X-rated and I don’t think we should go into that on this podcast.  Let’s just say that Zoe, the 75 pound Lab, has an affinity for her pillow and that’s probably all we should say about that. 

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Yeah [laughing], the pillow gets quite abused after a while but it’s always good to have ones that, like you said, hold their shape and are very supportive to the dog especially when you’re traveling long distances.  I know that Tasha really likes to be in comfort.

Susan Sims:  Well yeah she takes after her guardian Nicholas.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  That’s right.

Susan Sims:  But that’s probably enough said on that too.  So, we’re going to take a quick break and when we come back we will find out what makes our guest’s catnip pet bed so different.  So sit and stay, we’ll be right back with Travel Tails on Pet Life Radio.

[radio break]

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Welcome back to Pet Life Radio.  This is Nicholas Sveslosky along with Susan Sims, your hosts for Travel Tails.  A little bit before the break, we were talking about finding the perfect bed and one that makes a great transition from your home to your car. 

Susan Sims:  Yeah, and joining us today is Rick Brun.  He’s the owner of OC Canine Dog Beds.  OC Canine provides your pet with a memory foam bed as well as many other products for Fido to enjoy.  So, we’re going to get talking to Rick right away and he can tell us all about his dog products.  So hey Rick, how are ya’ doing?

Rick Brun:  How ‘ya doin’? Happy Holidays to everybody!

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Happy Holidays man! I know you were involved with a little bit of traffic out there, weren’t you?

Rick Brun:  Absolutely, the good old Southern California traffic.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  I know, you get a little bit of rain and everybody just stops.

Rick Brun:  That’s it. It seems to be the topic on the news these days as well.

Susan Sims:  It always is.  You know, Nicholas and I are both native Southern Californians and prior to moving to Idaho--I’ve been in Idaho about three--I moved up to Central California.  And in just that simple move from Southern California to Central, I totally lost my driving edge.  I was no longer the competitive driver like Mario Andretti out on the freeway.   So we would get over the grapevine.  I’d have my husband drive; my nerves of steel had gone.

Rick Brun:  I understand that one.  It’s definitely a patience tester. 

Nicholas Sveslosky:  It gets you.  I remember Susie, when you’d come down, I’d kind of let you drive [laughter] because there were too many things that could go wrong.  It’s a fast pace that really gets you going.  

We were reviewing some of the products and the pet beds.  It makes a lot of sense to provide our best friends with a comfortable place to sleep and one that’s easy for us, as guardians, to clean and care for.  Tell us a little bit, how did you think of creating the OC Canine Dog Bed?

Rick Brun:  OK, well it all started out several years ago.  I had my own dog.  He was an American bred German Shepherd and I wasn’t too familiar with the breed. And that dog had developed a hereditary disease called hip dysplasia.  Going through different veterinarians and finally seeing an orthopedic specialist about getting a total hip replacement, one of the things the doctor had suggested was to change the bedding that my dog was sleeping on. 

I went out to the pet stores and I found numerous different orthopedic pet beds but I found that they’d lose their loft or they’d get flat in different places and they were just poly-filled pet beds.  So, long story short, I went down to a memory foam outlet in Santa Ana California, purchased a memory foam, sewed up my first cover and kind of proceeded from there. 

The doctor said that my dog’s condition had changed.  What was I doing differently? I told him I had changed the bedding and that kind of evolved to my selling my pet beds to the veterinarian hospitals.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Oh great. So actually, the vet was more or less approving your idea. 

Rick Brun:  Absolutely.  And then I had actually consulted with him and numerous other doctors after that. I consulted with them all the way up on the conditions, the use, what kind of quality components I could include with our pet bed so it will last for many years to come.

Susan Sims:  One of the things in looking at the beds, obviously, the covers are really easy to clean.  And on your website you’ve got a really great video.  It’s really a wonderful website. It’s ock9.com.  For us, as the consumer, the difference between the memory foam and what the generic bed has to offer is kind of like it’s not just for the dogs with hip dysplasia.  You can have a well pet and it’s going to benefit them as well.

Rick Brun:  Absolutely.  One of the things that we think attributes to a healthy pet would be one of our memory foam beds.  Like you said, they are not just necessarily for dogs with hip dysplasia or arthritis; they are also great preventative beds against hard and abrasive surfaces.  A lot of dogs tend to lie around on tile, cement or have just been accustomed to standard poly-filled pet beds that are currently out on the market. Those beds tend to lose their loft.  So you can also use our beds as a preventative against hard and abrasive surfaces.  Dogs and all pets seem to love them, pretty much.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  That’s really good.  I know that selling them to the hospitals was a very unique idea.  What were the reasons for going after some of these hospitals to get them to have the beds?

Rick Brun:  Well, initially, like I said, it started out with my dog and then after talking to these pet bed specialists and these orthopedic specialists, I had consulted numerous different people.  The doctors had mentioned prescribing our pet beds to our patients.  They were seeing and patients were seeing that there weren’t currently a lot of pet beds out there on the market to use for post-surgical rehabilitation.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Oh OK.  So actually after these pets come out of their surgery, your bed actually benefits the resting as opposed to some of these generic beds.

Rick Brun:  Absolutely.  One of the things that Orange County K9 also does, is we do custom fabrication of the hospital post-surgical cages.  When a dog comes out of having surgery at that specialist hospital, they’re then put in to a cage for resting. And they are actually, instead of resting on blankets and pillows and lesser quality pet beds, they’ve now got our memory foam comfort sleepers in their hospitals’ post-surgery recovery rooms.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  I know one of the things on the website that was a really good point --we don’t really think about this--but I think one of the points that you have, even on your chart, is that it really stimulates the circulation and blood flow which is incredibly important for these dogs’ recovery.

Rick Brun:  Absolutely.  Without good rest and good blood flow through the central nervous system, it’s just going to impede a speedy recovery.

Susan Sims:  I was just thinking about the consumer out there.  They’re looking at these beds and it’s obvious that this is something that’s going to be helpful for their pets.  But when we travel, what I liked a lot--and I think this is so different than what’s out there on the market--that the Universal Pet Travel Bed kind of does double duty as a bed and it also acts to protect the car from scratches and dog hair.  

Nicholas knows full well that when I’m traveling, we’re out there with our two dogs and we put them in the van--it’s pretty crazy.  You can clean that car but if you have an area like where your Universal Travel Bed is set up, where it’s almost like--I don’t want to say that it’s like a crib but it’s totally surrounded so it keeps them confined.  It’s comfortable and it keeps your car clean. 

Rick Brun:  Absolutely.  I took the same concept from the Universal Pet Comfort Sleeper and I integrated that to a pet travel bed based on my own experience.  Once I had the Comfort Sleeper, one day I was driving down the freeway and a typical California driver made a lane change without using their blinker. [laughter]  I hit the brakes and heard this big thump.  It was my dog that was getting racked against the back seat there so I said OK, I need to develop something different here.  

I still wanted to keep in mind the premium comfort of the memory foam.  So what I did is I created the Universal Pet Travel Bed.  What I’ve done is I’ve surrounded the actual memory foam base that is in my Comfort Sleeper with a 40-density four-inch thick quality support foam.  So if you miss your off ramp or if you have to hit your brakes, your dog has got a little bit of cushioning. 

In addition to that, anybody that leases or owns a car and has had the experience of bringing their dogs out to play or train at the dog parks [knows that] dog paws tend to accumulate a lot of mud, dirt and debris as well as dogs’ shedding.  Having the Universal Pet Travel Bed in your car is going to actually protect your vehicle as well as reduce the highway noises making it less stressful for your dog to travel.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Oh that’s perfect.  Well that’s good.  This is a really quality bed.  Tasha can attest to it as she’s sleeping right next to my feet.  I mean she is out and she just looks like she’s in heaven. So, is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about OC K9 Pet Beds?

Rick Brun:  Yeah, I think it’s important everybody knows the term “orthopedic pet bed” is so grossly misused. You can see that by going in to any pet store:  superstores or the mom and pop stores.  Basically, we’re just trying to offer a premium quality orthopedic memory foam pet bed--a truly orthopedic pet bed for the better health of your pet.

We’ve made that where you don’t have to wash the covers.  You can easily clean them with an anti-bacterial cloth.  There is a tough durable handle on it so if Dad’s gone and Mom needs to move that bed to another room, there’s a handle that’s easy to grab for it.

And then furthermore, a lot of older and mobility challenged pets tend to not be able to control their bowel movements.  I’ve got a 100 percent waterproof inner liner.  So you can clean the cover as easy as an anti-bacterial cloth.  You don’t have to throw it in the washer and dryer.  And then say your dog does soil the bed, you don’t have to worry about compromising the integrity of the memory foam inside, because it is protected by a 100 percent waterproof cover.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Perfect.

Susan Sims:  I think it’s important for those of us who travel a lot and we’re dragging our beds in and out of the house constantly.  It’s nice to finally get a product that does so much and is easy to take.  It especially really makes it not cumbersome to move these.   We have two dogs and we’re getting large beds.  If you think about it, if you want to just take that handle and grab, you can get it in your car and take off. You’ve really thought of everything.  Congratulations!! [laughing]

Rick Brun:  Thank you, thank you.  It’s such a pleasure to join you today.

Susan Sims:  We love being able to talk with you during this hectic holiday time.  We want to direct all our listeners that want to learn more about the Orange County K9 Pet Beds to visit your website. That’s ock9.com. You’ll be able to have a good time, look at the video.  There are a lot of things for you to pick and choose and you can find a perfect pet bed for your best friend.

Rick Brun:  That’s fantastic.  There’s a lot of great information on there.  It’s www.ock9.com.  Have a wonderful holiday everybody!

Susan Sims, Nicholas Sveslosky:  Thank you so much.

Susan Sims:  We’re going to take a break and when we come back, we’ll have our Fido Friendly travel tip so sit and stay.  We’ll be right back with more Travel Tails on Pet Life Radio!

[radio break]

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Welcome back to Pet Life Radio.  This is Nicholas Sveslosky along with Susan Sims, your hosts for Travel Tails. 

Before the break we were talking with Rick Brun, owner of OC K9 Pet Beds. 

Susan Sims:  I have to say I’m very impressed with how great these beds look, how easy they are to clean and how good they are for your dog.

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Yeah, Tasha absolutely is loving it now.  She didn’t like the fact that she had to get used to a new bed but I think once she settled in, she just was completely asleep.  These are really great beds and I think they’re also perfect for gift giving any time of the year so you may want to make this a last minute Christmas gift for you and your dog. 

And this actually brings us to our Fido Friendly travel tip.  With Christmas just a few days away, the celebrations at your house, may continue well into the new year.  It’s a really good idea to be mindful of all the goodies that people are bringing over to help celebrate the holidays.  There are a lot of foods and even some plants that are really toxic to your pets. 

So no matter how good the egg nog, be sure to clean up after your guests leave so that Fido does not do the job for you and then get a trip to the E.R.

Susan Sims:  Yeah I think that’s a really good tip.  We get kind of carried away and there’s a lot of activity going on.  I know our dogs always take any chance that they can get to do some counter surfing so that’s really a good thing to remember during these happy times. 

Nicholas Sveslosky:  Yeah, it’s definitely to keep in mind, always thinking about the dog because they don’t know what’s going on.  [laughter]

Fido Friendly magazine will be including summer travel accessories like OC K9 pet beds in the January/February issue so this would be a great issue to take a look through.

Susan Sims:  Yeah and if you’d like to find out more about today’s topics, or just about traveling with Fido, you can go online to fidofriendly.com to subscribe or stop in your local Borders, Barnes & Noble or PetSmart and pick up a copy of Fido Friendly today.   You know we’d love to hear from you with any questions or comments so feel free to email us at Pet Life Radio.  Until next time, safe travels, leave no dog behind.  This is Susan Sims along with Nicholas Sveslosky for Travel Tails on Pet Life Radio.